Study Conscientiously for the Revolution

CHINA'S Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has won great victories. An extensive study movement Is now sweeping our country in accordance with our great leader Chairman Mao's instruction to carry out education in ideology and political line throughout the Party. Firmly advancing in this direction, the cadres, especially leading cadres, are making remoulding their world outlook and raising their initiative in carrying out Chairman Mao's revolutionary line the focal point for study. To remould one's world outlook and raise one's consciousness of the struggle between the two lines, it is essential to read seriously and painstakingly study Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. Read seriously. Chairman Mao has consistently taught this to our Party's leading cadres at all levels; it is also the most fundamental question concerning building the Party ideologically. At every important point in the history of our Party's growth. Chairman Mao has issued the call to strengthen theoretical education and laid the ideological foundation for Party members to eliminate "Left" or Right opportunism and win still greater victories for the cause of revolution. Historical experience in the struggle between the two lines tells us that only after grasping Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought can we, in the struggle between the two classes, two roads and two lines, distinguish genuine Marxism from false Marxism, overcome interference from "Left" or Right opportunism, consciously implement and defend Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line, and never lose our bearings in our advance along the road of continuing the revolution. Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought penetratingly reflects the laws of development of nature, society and men's thinking. This theory "is the most correct, scientific and revolutionary truth, born out of and verified by objective reality." It points out the road for the proletariat and other labouring people to make revolution and win emancipation, and lays down the line, principles, policies and tactics for a proletarian political party to lead the revolution to victory. Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought is the theoretical basis guiding our Party's thinking; it is the soul of our Party and our basic guarantee for winning victory in the revolution. Vice-Chairman Lin has pointed out: "Mao Tsetung Thought is the thought of class struggle." The thought of class struggle and the method of class analysis constitute a red line running through all the documents of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. A correct analysis and understanding of the contradictions, classes and class struggle in society is the basic point of departure for formulating and implementing a correct political line. With a correct political line, it is possible to lead the proletariat and the masses and, following the objective laws of class struggle, guide it in the light of its general trend to seize victory. All counter-revolutionary revisionists are opposed to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. While holding up the signboard of Marxism, renegades Wang Ming, Liu Shao-chi and their like tamper with it. Like the old-line revisionists and modern revisionists in other countries, they do everything they can to distort, compromise and negate class struggle, trying "lo replace its materialistic basis by modern mythology with its goddesses of Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." (Marx: To F.A. Sorge.) In a word, they try to pass the world outlook of bourgeois humanitarianism and humanism off as the Marxist world outlook. Hitting the nail on the head. Chairman Mao pointed out: "They completely deny that the several thousand years of human history arc a history of class struggle. They completely deny the class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, the proletarian revolution against the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. On the contrary, they are faithful lackeys of the bourgeoisie and the imperialists. Together with the bourgeoisie and the imperialists, they cling to the bourgeois ideology of oppression and exploitation of the proletariat and to the capitalist system, and they oppose Marxist-Leninist ideology and the socialist system. They are a bunch of counter-revolutionaries opposing the Communist Party and the people." Our struggle against them is a life-and-death struggle. But they rattle on about the so-called relationship of "equality," "peaceful coexistence" between the exploiting and exploited classes or "kindness or magnanimity." They are a pack of political charlatans. Only by seriously reading and painstakingly studying Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and studying Chairman Mao's philosophical works and criticizing their reactionary idealistic and metaphysical bourgeois world outlook and their counter-revolutionary revisionist line, can we enhance our consciousness of class struggle and the struggle between the two lines and ensure that the socialist revolution continues to advance along the correct road. Some of our cadres do not pay enough attention to reading. They think they "have a good deal of experience and can get along without studying" since, having come through the democratic revolution and the socialist revolution for more than the past two decades, particularly the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, they have been tempered in class struggle. Is this right? Certainly not! It is true that during the long years of struggle, these comrades have obtained rich experience which is valuable. But such experience is only perceptual; it is merely partial knowledge, the phenomena and external relations of class struggle and the struggle between the two lines. Chairman Mao has taught us: "What is perceived cannot at once be comprehended and that only what is comprehended can be more deeply perceived. Perception only solves the problem of phenomena; theory alone can solve the problem of essence." If anyone grows arrogant simply because he has some experience and does not study conscientiously and use Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought to sum up his experience and raise it to the level of rational knowledge, he will not be able to grasp the whole situation, the essence and the laws of class struggle and the struggle between the two lines, and he will not be able to grasp what is going on today in a profound way, still less will he be able to see what will happen tomorrow, and consequently he will lose his bearings in practice. "Conditions are changing all the time, and to adapt one's thinking to the new conditions, one must study." Those who rest content with their own experience will find themselves unable to follow the now situation and not suited to the new environment; the emergence of new things will always take them unawares and the new problems that crop up will leave them at a loss. Such a situation is not surprising, because they "respect experience but despise theory, and therefore cannot have a comprehensive view of an entire objective process, lack clear direction and long-range perspective, and are complacent over occasional successes and glimpses of the truth." Such people of course cannot lead the revolution well. Practice in revolutionary struggle has once again proved that relying on experience alone will greatly limit their knowledge and they will be groping in the dark, unable to distinguish between genuine and false Marxism and between the correct line and erroneous lines. Without reading seriously and studying revolutionary theory diligently, they will not be able to distinguish right from wrong, and there is the danger of taking the wrong stand and the wrong road. If this becomes the case, the charlatans assuming a Marxist guise will "capture and make servitors" of such people. The fact that some veteran cadres made mistakes in line prior to and during the Great Cultural Revolution should be a lesson to us. Whether their experience is rich or not, all cadres must "be modest and prudent, guard against arrogance and rashness." We must act according to Chairman Mao's instruction: "Those experienced in work must take up the study of theory and must read seriously; only then will they be able to systematize and synthesize their experience and raise it to the level of theory, only then will they not mistake their partial experience for universal truth and not commit empiricist errors." In the case of new cadres, there are also those who do not pay enough attention to reading. They think that since they have a good class origin and are full of enthusiasm, they naturally will not commit big mistakes. Such thinking is also wrong. Can anyone not brought up by Mao Tsetung Thought advance in the correct revolutionary direction simply because of good class origin? Of course not. It is easiest for the working class and other labouring people to accept Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, but this revolutionary theory does not arise spontaneously. Lenin said that "the working class, exclusively by its own effort, is able to develop only trade-union consciousness" and that "trade-unionism means the ideological enslavement of the workers by the bourgeoisie." (What Is to Be Done?) Only by accepting the dissemination of revolutionary theories in their actual struggles, studying hard and reading seriously can the workers and peasants understand the revolutionary truths and have a clear idea in which direction they should advance. If they think that they need not study and read because of their good class origin, then they will not be able to distinguish genuine Marxism from false Marxism and the correct line from the erroneous lines, and they will also take the wrong stand and the wrong road.